Emergency Action - Stop Bulldozing 9th Ward in New Orleans

Emergency Action in SF Federal Building Friday 1pm- Stop Bulldozing 9th Ward in New Orleans!


Please forward, call and COME!

Emergency Action!!! City of New Orleans is bulldozing people’s homes in the 9th Ward in New Orleans!


Contacts:
Kali Aaron Williams, Malcolm X Grassroots Organization: (510) 593-3956
Lisa Milos, Bay to Gulf People’s Pipeline: (415) 260-2565
CC Campbell-Rock, Hurricane Evacuees Council of the Bay Area: (925) 339-6435

Press Release

The city of New Orleans is attempting to destroy the homes of residents in the Lower 9th Ward. This is in spite of a temporary moratorium won by social justice groups against the city which blocks attempts to bulldoze the homes of Lower 9th Ward residents. The moratorium, which ends on January 6th, 2006, is being circumvented by the city through the unconstitutional use of eminent domain. Local residents are working alongside Common Ground Collective, and the People’s Hurricane Relief Fund, a network of grass-roots organizations working for the rights of displaced and neglected victims of Hurricane Katrina, and are protesting the action and calling on citizens everywhere to get involved.

The people of San Francisco call on ou! r government representatives to vehemently oppose and denounce this action by the City of New Orleans.

This action by the City of New Orleans sets a dangerous precedent for all low income communities of color across the country, especially for cities and regions that are prone to natural disasters, such as the San Francisco Bay Area.

Homeowners of the historically Black, working-class Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood have not been notified or consulted about the plans for their neighborhood, and the city has indicated it has no intention of contacting owners before demolition. “No one is asking the residents anything about reconstruction. We’re being thrown to the side,” said Vera McFadden, a Lower Ninth Ward tenant.

Common Ground and the People’s Hurricane Relief Fund are currently fighting to have City, State, and Federal Government extend the same courtesy and aid to Ninth Ward residents that has been provided to property owners in the predominantly white St. Bernard's Parish. The residents of St.Bernard Parish (which is less than two miles away and damaged just as badly) are being afforded FEMA trailers and the freedom to decide what happens to their private property while the private properties of the predominantly black Lower 9th residents are being illegally bulldozed.

Social Justice and Peace organizations throughout the Bay Area denounce the destruction of the homes in this predominantly African American neighborhood in New Orleans.

As if it weren’t enough that the local, state and federal governments abdicated their responsability of adequately funding and securing the levee system to prevent such a disaster in the first place, hundreds of thousands of evacuees re! main stranded in the four corners of this country without the resources to return to defend their homes and belongings.

As if it weren’t enough that the local, state and federal governments did not put into practice any semblance of a coordinated evacuation plan for the thousands of residents who had no independent means to evacuate prior to the disaster, thousands of evacuees will begin facing evictions from their hotels by February 7th.

As if these and countless other documented cases of human rights violations perpetrated against the people o! f New Orleans during and after the flooding, the City of New Orleans is using eminent domain to violate the civil and property rights of predominantly African American and low income residents.

The only way that low income communities of color throughout the Bay Area will feel secure that we will not share the same fate in the event of a disaster is if our elected representatives publically denounce these actions by the City of New Orleans, publically support the civil and property rights of the people of the Lower Ninth Ward and do everything within their power to stop this dangerous precedent from taking place.

For more information about Common Ground: http://www.commongroundrelief.org.
Phone: (504) 218-6613
For more information about Peoples Hurricane Relief Fund: http://www.communitylaborunited.net. Phone: (888) 310-7473